Trains for transporting rail freight often include a number of coupled railway cars that are pulled along a railroad network by one or more locomotive consists. Locomotive consists include a plurality of locomotives that are linked together for collectively driving a train and can be positioned at a front, middle, or rear location in the train. In general, one of the plurality of locomotives is designated as the lead locomotive, which is controlled by operating personnel and/or an automatic train operation (ATO) system. The remaining locomotives are designated as trailing locomotives, which are operated by or in reliance on instructions provided to the lead locomotive. However, in some situations, the lead locomotive can experience a malfunction that may require the lead locomotive to be operated at a reduced power output or shut down to avoid potential damage. In these situations, managers may wish to reconfigure the other locomotives and designate one of them as the lead locomotive to allow the mission to continue.
When a lead change is desired, certain settings that govern locomotive systems and statuses must be reconfigured based on the nature of the lead change. This process typically requires operators to visit each locomotive of the train and manually actuate many buttons, levers, and switches to reconfigure each locomotive. This process can be time consuming for train operators and can result in costly delays, especially when locomotive consists are positioned throughout a train having several hundred cars. Delays can be exacerbated in situations where an autonomous train experiences a fault with its lead locomotive and is stopped at a location where it may take several hours for personnel to arrive and perform the necessary reconfigurations for a lead change.
A system for remotely controlling the operations of locomotives in a train is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,536 of Brousseau et al. that issued on Sep. 10, 2002 (“the '536 patent”). Specifically, the system described in the '536 patent includes a plurality of locomotives, each having a control module that sends and receives data via an associated communicating device. One of the locomotives is designated as the lead locomotive, which can wirelessly receive a master control signal from an operator and generate local control signals sent wirelessly to other locomotives based on the master control signal. The master control signal may be indicative of a change in the lead operational status, which causes the lead locomotive to relinquish the lead status to another locomotive and assume a trailing status. After a lead change, the new lead locomotive receives the master control signal and generates the local control signals for the other locomotives.
While the system disclosed in the '536 patent may permit for the wireless transmission of master and local control signals among lead and trailing locomotives during operation, it may not be optimum. In particular, the system of the '536 may still require manual reconfiguration of each locomotive in the train during a lead change, which can be burdensome and time consuming. Further, although the system of the '536 patent addresses the transmission of throttle and braking commands during operation of the train, it fails to address commands that may be generated during a lead change.
The disclosed train control system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.